Once Upon a Winter's Spring

4. Once Upon a Dream

"Hades!"

Kori covered her ears and squatted to the floor as her father's roar echoed in the room as if he were scolding the person addressed.

She stood up and peaked around when she heard the portal part in a mechanical hum, but from her place she could not see who had come.

"Zeus." Said the new voice, in a calm that juxtaposed her father's anger. The voice was deep and smooth, dark and mystical. Kori felt butterflies in her stomach, yearning to hear more of the voice.

"You were entirely absent from the Homecoming celebration. That is unacceptable of an original Olympian!"

"More important than a crack in Tartarus, brother?" His voice was calm, but it still sounded like the context was detrimental. A fact confirmed by Zeus's reaction.

Zeus's aura had a visible twitch, and he was less collected than his brother.

"A break in Tartarus?! That is inconceivable!"

"Time weakens everything, and the Titans have not forgotten."

"This occurrence could mean death to us all, Hades! Yet you speak so lightly of it!"

The way her father sounded and the words he chose made him sound pathetic to Kore. How could her father, the king of the gods, be afraid? She was definitely rooting for the other guy, Hades. The boys had told such horrific stories about him, yet he didn't sound at all like they had described him.

The Gods continued to argue and Zeus refused to take Hades's word for it. In his defense, the god of Hell conjured up a torch as his witness.

"Am I to hear the words of a torch?!"

"Thanks to you, everything created has a soul, as does this torch. It's one of the few surrounding the captivity of Tartarus. Listen to it's soul."

Kori watched in utter amazement as Hades drew out the soul of the inanimate object, morphing the blue aura into a body. The blue ghost immediately sank to his knees in the presence of the two gods.

Their conversation bored her and she carefully snuck out of the room, unconsciously catching a glimpse of the God who had stepped out of the portal. Casually skipping back to her mother's tower, Kori noticed that it was still dusk, as Helios was sitting, head sleepily resting on his hand, waiting out his punishment as Demeter was angrily pacing back and forth. Kori face palmed.

Boy, this is going to be fun! She thought, biting her lip.

Opening the door as quietly as she could, Kori tiptoed into her own home as if a common thief: her skirt folded in her hands as her shoulders bunched up close to her ears. But that didn't save her one penny!

"Kori!" Demeter screamed from the top of the spiraling stairs.

Kori froze in her step, her shoulders hugging her neck.

"Just where have you been?! Are you at all aware of the hour?!" Demeter scolded as she descended the stairs.

"It's not past sunset yet," Kori cheekily attempted in reference to Helios coming down behind Demeter, suppressing a yawn behind his hand.